Memories - by Sanders/Draper Productions

[Jason Sanders]

http://www.jbsfilms.net/poster2.jpg


MEMORIES
A story of love, loss, and regret.

Directed/Written: Brett Draper
Produced: Jason Sanders
DP: Geoff Reisner
Edited: Brett/Jason
Composer: Randin Graves

Actors:
Sara Maas
30001

Jasyn Jefferies
30735

[Jason Sanders]

http://vimeo.com/19961408

[Matt Harris]

Cool.

[MrFluffy]

Tell us more!

[Jason Sanders]

So we wrapped yesterday and everyone did an awesome job. Its was great working with Geoff, Brett and Sara again and Jasyn for the first time. Will post some screen grabs later.

[Matt Harris]

Congrats! Grabs please.

[Jason Sanders]

some grabs from the gh13




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[Matt Harris]

Nice! You lovin' the Gh13? Those aren't graded right?

[Jason Sanders]

Yeah those are graded a little, just messing around with them in AE. I do like the gh1 but will probably get a gh2 in the future, not anytime soon though.

[Matt Harris]

lookin' good, they actually do look graded, deep blacks.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Congrats on the wrap! Looking good.

[pauly_the_hitman]

Can't wait to see it man... :-)

[Jason Sanders]

Thanks Pauly. I think we are almost done and ready to upload. Just need to work on the poster, I suck at it, is anyone good with posters? lol

[Chris Messineo]

I love the look from a GH1. I'm looking forward to this.

[EditPhish]

Can't wait to see this one... looking good!

[randin]

Uploaded?! Hoorah!

[Mr Blue]

Uploaded?! Hoorah!

Congrats, Hope to be there tomorrow night.

[Noel Evans]

Well directed, well shot - good sound. Some other comments later.

[AJ Brooks]

Hey great work!

I like your story and execution.

If you plan on making any revisions, I would change the shot at 1:50, I think it tips off the audience too much and weakens the reveal.

Good job!

[Chris_Keaton]

Hah, did that dude shave his head for this? You could've just hired Rod. :) But seriously he did a great job. I was thinking oh the cheese, don't let this performance be wasted on a cheesy love story and I was very pleasantly surprised by the twist. I can tell you really put some time and effort into this great job.

[Jason Sanders]

Thanks Noel, AJ and Chris for the complements. We are very happy that it all came together so well. No Chris, his head was already shaven. :) We had him shave his face for the flashback though.

[Chris Messineo]

Really solid film.

Your actors were both great. Their performances felt honest and the voice over work was really good (although I'm not sure why his "other" voice would sound different - other than to try and hide the twist). Speaking of the twist, I did guess the ending, but I still dug it, especially the way the lines echoed from the beginning to the end and we realized the truth.

I am a huge fan of Geoff's work as a DP and this looked fantastic. I also really loved the score. Well done.

[Chris_Keaton]

Thanks Noel, AJ and Chris for the complements. We are very happy that it all came together so well. No Chris, his head was already shaven. :) We had him shave his face for the flashback though.

His shaved head in the flashback made him more sinister.

[Charli]

The photography looked good as others have stated and the music added the right tone. I however was not captivated by the story because it was "told" to me. I didn't experience it unveil for myself. I'm not a huge fan of voice overs which is why I felt the entire film was one long exposition. The actor was okay but in this type of story he's really acting by himself. The reveal was a nice twist but I would have liked to be thrown into the story instead of shown the story. Nice head shave.

[randin]

Thanks Chris M and Charli for mentioning the music!

And yep, the importance of a good shave to a film can not be overemphasized.

[lyonfilms]

Liked the music and the dark tone and lighting. The other voice, being different, through me off a bit.

[Hitaish]

I thought the lead actor (man) did a great job and the story flowed very well. Music was wonderful and spot on. The shot of the woman's eyes is freaky and awesome!

Also great use of the "bag" item for the FictionFest. :happy:

[Matt Harris]

Good job guys, I here was my thought process while watching the movie:

"man this movie is corny, what a crying wuss this guy is... oh wait... oh no he didn't! the suitcase! cool!"

I LOVED the twist. It totally fooled me. Nice job!

[ZazaCast]

Very well done! Looked & sounded perfect for my taste and this was a great story idea.
I still don't quite understand who he was talking to? Himself or someone else? I'll have to go back
and read all the other comments to figure it out.

I personally enjoy dialogue between characters and would have liked you to give the female lead
a little room...even for a giggle or two. At 4 minutes, you still had time. She probably would have fought
a bit more when being strangled (not like I have experience or anything ;-).

Kudos to the team.

[maranfilms]

All I can say is WOW!! Doesn't get any better than this. Amazing story, brilliantly acted!, PERFECT AUDIO !!~And stunning cinematography. This one took it for me. A++

[EditPhish]

*SPOILERS*

My criticisms: The only thing I didn't like was the third voice because I wasn't sure who it was supposed to be. A nit-pick would be that the strangling scene could have been stronger, more violent.

My compliments: This is one of my favorite films! Our entire group at our viewing party liked it also. You had the BEST USE of the required PROP by far! I never saw it coming and it was a marvelous idea... one of those ideas everyone wishes they had thought of.
Music and mood were awesome. It was an excellent story, and I love how it changes. How you used color to create a different mood the 2nd time around. I love the premise of remembering things differently, depending on where you're standing... and just how twisted an abuser's mindset can be.

Top scores! EXCELLENT!

[Shawn Philip Nelson]

Interesting! Well acted, well shot. A simple story but it works.

Great DP work as usual from Geoff. Though I think he should have silked or flagged off that hot trunk :-)

Oh, what lenses were used?

[Jason Sanders]

Thanks for the compliments. Geoff did a great job.

Shawn - I think we used a 24mm, 28mm and 50mm nikon lenses.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

I think it's your best to date.

Love Geoff's work but could have used a little more coverage.

Seeing her face lying on the carpet was a bit of a giveaway. I lked the acting. Could have used more brutality during the murder. Seemed too controlled.

I don't think you needed the arm falling out either. When you changed the shot to the case I was sold on what happened.

Really good stuff. Looked great, nice edit, adequate sound. Great job.

[maranfilms]

I thought the mysterious voice worked perfect. You have this guy thats obviously crazy, The way I took it, it could either be someone in the room he's telling all this to, or it could be an imaginary person in his mind that he's hearing and talking to. IT left just enough to use your imagination.

[Jason Sanders]

With the voice, we wanted to keep it kind of vague. It could be a friend or all in his head.

[4100xpb]

Nicely done. I really liked the high key look on the flashbacks, it worked really well. I liked the twist in this one, it worked well. My main problem was with the off-screen voice. Who is he and why is he saying these things? As is, he feels like a device just to twist the story. I think it would have been easy to give it a small role such as an interrogator or psychologist that would have told us why we are hearing this in the first place. Overall, though, quite well done.

[Blaine]

Nice job, Jason. Your best work to date. This was a very pleasant surprise. I don't know what I was expecting from you but you definitely exceeded it. Congrats on scoring Geoff as your DP. He does great work and this is no exception.

Nice simple story. Well told. Not too, long. I would have liked to have heard less voice over. It felt too much like you were telling the story with words, not pictures after a while. The music might have been a tad melodramatic toward the end...

You should be happy with what you've done here. :thumbsup:

[MrFluffy]

This was very well done. Good story, although I figured the punchline at the opening shot as the dialog seemed a bit too on the nose.

Camera work was great, sound was excellent and the emotive acting was spot on (except maybe for the about to cry bit :) ).

Very well done.

[Anthony Todaro]

This is one of my favorites so far. Music was PERFECT but a touch hot in the mix. Looks and sounds great overall. Well acted too. Good use of sound design with the stereo panning matching your shots. Some really interesting angles and setups too. My only gripe is I think in the second half the narration started to give to much away. I think you could have had him reading the ingredients from a cereal box and the visuals you showed us would have carried it and with more mystery and creepiness. That said, I’m nit picking, but it's just because I thought this was awesome. Great work here.

[randin]

Thanks Anthony and others who complimented the music!

It's interesting, Blaine, that you said the music is a tad melodramatic in the end. I don't entirely disagree, even though I made it. :) My original version was much subtler, without the rock elements, then Jason asked me to crank it up a few notches. I personally preferred it going more sparse and a little creepy for the 3rd act there instead of building intensity, but I'm fine with how it ended up and some people seem to really like it.

I mention this for a couple reasons. One, it's just another illustration of the fact that all this film stuff is subject to people's tastes, and two, just to say, that's my job. In the end, a film composer is there to serve the director's vision. I love the challenge of getting into other people's aesthetic to fulfill a part of their vision that they can't do themselves. And it gives me the opportunity to do such different things as 'Memories' one week and 'Sente Sente' the next!

On another subject, in context of a short short like this, I thought it was cool to go with an ambiguous off screen voice rather than showing or explaining it.

[Brett Draper]

Thanks to everybody for commenting on the video. It really helps to find out what people thought worked, and what didn’t.

Originally Jason and I decided we would not have the voice over repeat for the second part of the video; instead, you would see flashes of the “love” shots mixed in. However, even though the shots were almost identical, they were too jarring.

I just wanted to give a big thanks to Randin and Geoff.

Geoff was the only reason the video looked as good as it did. I was apprehensive of shooting directly into a bright light source, but I’m glad he talked us into it because it looks beautiful.

Randin did an amazing job on the music, and delivered exactly what Jason and I asked for. Without him the video would have fell flat.

Thanks again for all the comments. I can’t wait for the next fest.

[randin]

Thanks, Brett!